1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gaming machine and/or entertainment machine, in particular in the form of slot machines and/or gambling machines operable by coins and/or by monetary equivalents, having a plurality of screens for the presentation of information, in particular of game contents and/or of game information, which are directed toward a machine operating position, and having a control device for the control of the screens and/or for the control of game procedures.
Such gaming machines can, for example, form electronically designed reel gaming machines in which a plurality of rotating reels having different game symbols are presented in a rotating manner in the viewing windows of the display fields and game winnings are dispensed when the reels having the same game symbols come to a stop along a winning line. In this respect, a control panel having a plurality of control buttons is provided beneath the screens, approximately at the level of the stomach of the player standing in front of the machine, said control buttons being operable by hand and serving, among other things, to set the rotating reels into operation and/or to stop them.
2. Description of Related Art
It has already been proposed to increase the playing appeal in such gaming machines to install a plurality of screens to be able to have different games run simultaneously or to be able to display further information, in addition to a running game, for example on other game options of the machine or the status of other gambling games, so that the player can obtain additional entertainment from the respective other screen during less exciting game periods.
A gaming machine of the initially named kind is known, for example, from WO 2005/041139 A1 in which the display apparatus includes two large-area screens which are inclined with respect to one another and on which games to be played with the gaming machine can be displayed. A control panel with a plurality of operating buttons which can be operated by hand, which control different game functions or game parameters and which inter alia include a start button to set a game into motion is also provided beneath the display apparatus comprising screens.
It has also already been proposed with such gaming machines to use more than two screens to increase the playing appeal. The number of screens can, however not be increased as desired with a given total size of the machine housing. In addition, with an arrangement of large screens, the field of view to be surveyed overall is very large, which can no longer or not easily be perceived simultaneously in a relaxed manner without looking to and fro and which ultimately cannot only result in physical fatigue of the player, but can also bring along a reduction in the playing appeal and in concentration. In addition, with slot machines having a plurality of large screens which are arranged above one another, the plurality of games ongoing at the same time are not able to be followed ideally in the player position predetermined by the named control panel.
It is therefore the underlying object of the present invention to provide an improved electronic gaming machine, in particular a slot machine and/or gambling machine which avoids disadvantages of the prior art and further develops it in an advantageous manner. An increased playing appeal should in particular be achieved with a limited machine size without obtaining this with fatigue problems or concentration problems.